The seven deadly sins of Hollywood (1957)

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF HOLLYWOOD tycoons from time to time find themselves a genius — and let him loose in their studios. They have fairly sound business reasons for doing this. If his film should turn out to be a triumph, they will make money and also be acclaimed as far-sighted, cultured and adventurous people. If his film should be a disaster it can usually be written off against tax and it can also be used for many years afterwards as an argument against deviating from the Hollywood-line and against employing any more geniuses. Assuming that a studio wants to find a genius (for the reasons I have given), how does it recognise one when it sees him. On the surface this looks like a major problem. It probably takes a genius to recognise a genius, and you do not find him drinking a milk-shake at the corner drugstore where talent scouts are reputed to do most of their scouting. But Hollywood over the years has evolved a rule-ofthumb method for spotting geniuses, and nowadays every competent talent scout knows what to look for. He will be a man who does not wear a tie, who is rude to his hostess at a cocktail party, who is contemptuous of Hollywood and has at least half a dozen different vocations. Thus the man who has a great gift for playing the piano cannot qualify as a Hollywood genius. Nor can the man who is a superb artist. Nor can the man who is an inspired director. Nor can the man who is a brilliant writer. But if there is a man who can write tolerably well, play the piano competently, direct brilliantly, act with distinction, compose music passably, speak twelve languages, perform on the flying trapeze, do his own interior decorations and perform conjuring tricks — in Hollywood he is a genius. I could find no person fitting this description in Hollywood. But out in the Nevada desert, at a gambling oasis called Las Vegas, there was such a man, I was told. 128